Sulfur, sulfur ions, and sulfur compounds in hydrocarbon sources, such crude oil, natural gas, coal, oil and tar sands, bitumen resources and asphalts, lowers the value of the resource and renders the hydrocarbons more difficult to process into higher value products, with greater capital and equipment requirements. Similarly, sulfur minerals, ions, and compounds complicate the processing of mineral ores and concentrates. These components can be released into the environment if combusted, smelted, roasted or otherwise industrially processed without the removal of the sulfur compounds.
Moreover, a large worldwide resource is contained in oil and tar sands, bitumen resources, and asphalts generally recognized to be the remnants of a lighter hydrocarbon reservoir that has undergone oxidation and biologic degradation of the lighter hydrocarbon components to heavier molecular components in the shallow crust. The degradation of the resource can cause either oil-wet or water-wet wettability conditions, and adhesion to the sand and geologic media in which it resides, depending on a host of digenetic, lithologic, and geologic history variables. Commercial interest in the recovery of liquid hydrocarbons from shallow and other poorly consolidated sediments is driven by the tremendous size of the resource base compared to conventional oil, and their concentrated accumulations. These factors have supported increased demand for technologies capable of increasing efficiencies in the production of unconventional oil resources.
Current oil sand operations, however, rely on the large scale application of heat, surfactants, alkaline materials and other chemicals to process and separate hydrocarbon sources from the host geologic media, resulting in variable operating costs and a large and burdensome fixed capital structure. Alternatively, hydraulic fracturing techniques use “slick-water” fracturing fluids typically comprising water, friction reducers and a biocide for low permeability and shale hydrocarbon resource development. This technology uses large volumes of water with low concentrations of friction reducers, biocides and other additives injected at high volumes and pressures (>50 barrels per min (bpm), at >5000 psi) to break down the geologic media, creating dendritic fractures in the rock, increasing the surface area in communication with and creating permeable pathways to the wellbore, releasing trapped hydrocarbons.